[Blind Gossip] This story of a spoiled celeb comes to us from Reader’s Digest. The story is being told by a guy named Scott Neeson, who used to work with the biggest stars in Hollywood as a million-dollar-a-year executive at Sony Pictures and 20th Century Fox.
Neeson left Hollywood behind to create a charity to save children who lived at the garbage dumps in Cambodia. This part of the story describes a significant turning point for him, when he was working in Hollywood and concurrently running a charity. From Reader’s Digest:
Within seven months, Neeson had rented a building in Phnom Penh that served as a live-in shelter, hired a small staff, and rescued 12 homeless children. He thought about moving permanently to Cambodia but was undecided. Then one day during a visit, his cell phone rang. It as a movie star and his agent, calling from a promotional tour Neeson was handling.
“Scott, we’ve got a problem,” the agent said.
Neeson, who just that morning had learned that five of the children in his new shelter had typhoid, answered, “What’s up?”
“The plane the studio chartered doesn’t have the right sort of bottled water or the food we require,” the agent said. “We’re not getting on until this is resolved.”
Then the star grabbed the phone and said, “Scott, my life is not supposed to be this difficult. Fix it.”
That was the turning point. Shortly thereafter, Neeson said goodby to Hollywood, as well as the Porsche, the yacht, the mansion, and the salary, and started the Cambodian Children’s Fund with his own money.
Today, CCF provides housing, food, clothing, health care, education, and vocational training to more than 1200 children and employs 445 staffers.
You can find out more about CCF here. You can read the entire story about Scott here. Just scroll down to Magazine, Reader’s Digest, Great Scott. Just a warning: His story, while very inspirational, will probably make you cry.
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